Category: News

Gov. Spencer Cox named Brigham Young University professor Rex Facer as chair of Utah’s independent redistricting commission Monday, while legislative leaders named former Rep. Rob Bishop and two former state lawmakers to the panel. Facer is an associate professor of public management in the Romney Institute of Public Service and Ethics, where he teaches in…

SALT LAKE CITY — Over two years after Utah voters narrowly passed a proposition to create an independent commission for the purpose of creating redistricting lines in the state, the members of that committee were finally revealed this week. The seven-person committee will be chaired by Rex Facer, an associate professor of public management in…

SALT LAKE CITY — Have you run out of table space for your pandemic-therapy jigsaw puzzles? Are Rubik’s Cubes just too easy? Already a whiz on every aspect of the $2 trillion congressional stimulus package? Do you find the theory of relativity boringly simplistic? Are you secretly glad for social distancing because you no longer…

By: Bethany RodgersPublished February 27th, 2020 Updated:February 28th, 2020 Utah’s independent redistricting commission will have to adopt their own anti-gerrymandering standards before drawing maps for congressional, legislative and other voting districts under a compromise unveiled Thursday. Better Boundaries, a group fighting to preserve Proposition 4, and state lawmakers announced the deal during an amicable news…

26 August 2019 More than sixty percent of Utah voters want Prop 4 to be implemented exactly as it was written and passed in the 2018 General Election, according to a recent poll published by Utah Policy Daily and conducted by Y2 Analytics. The poll “finds that 63 percent of Utah voters don’t want Herbert…

Opinion – June 30th, 2019 The judicial branch delivered a blow to democracy Thursday as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal courts have no authority to determine the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering. It was a confounding development for people all over the country who believe elections should be fair and that, as the saying…

  By The Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board · “He became so powerful, the only thing he was afraid of was losing his power, which eventually, of course, he did.” — Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, “Revenge of the Sith” The Supreme Court of the United States says it is helpless to defend a basic tenant of…

  Deseret News editorial board The Supreme Court ruling that partisan gerrymandering is not prohibited by the Constitution should not be construed as an endorsement of the practice, which the majority opinion concedes can lead to districting practices that “seem reasonably unjust.” Permissible though it may be, the practice of gerrymandering remains destructive to the…

Written by: Bob Bernick, Contributing Editor If the Utah Legislature, controlled by Republicans, and GOP. Gov. Gary Herbert repeal or change Prop 4 – the independent redistricting commission approved by voters in November – they will be going against, by far, what a majority of Utahns want, a new poll by UtahPolicy.com shows. It’s true…